At this point, I feel like I’ve been playing Journey for half of my life. I’ve played through underwater Journey, forest Journey, air Journey, space Journey, cat Journey, and even boring Journey. Yet upon my yearly ascent in the original Journey on New Year’s Day, I find myself just as floored as when I first picked it up years ago, in spite of clone after clone exhausting my goodwill. What exactly then, is present in the original’s realized game design philosophy that every other spiritual successor has found themselves bereft of?

To answer this question, I want you to imagine a world where Journey doesn’t exist. A world where the formula to indie developers meant something more than just mindlessly tilting up on the left joystick to walk towards the next checkpoint while some narrator waxed poetic in the background. Before Journey, before Flower even, the closest ancestor we had was Ico. Fumito Ueda described his game as an execution of “boy meets girl,” and what it boiled down to was a minimalist adventure game with some puzzles cleverly disguised as platforming and timing segments. Occasionally, you also whack a few shadows while protecting and pulling your female companion Yorda through vast and still castle ruins. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means; the combat was frankly tedious, Yorda lacked much of an identity outside of pointing at objects of interest/opening doors/getting kidnapped, and at the end of the day, there really wasn’t much in the way of a balanced and developed relationship when the player was calling all the shots, but it was still the start of something beautiful. It wasn’t mechanically complex or esoteric in any fashion, but it was different. It was different, and it felt dangerous.

This write-up is not intended to be a critique of Ico, nor is it meant to imply that games proceeding Team Ico's philosophy of “design by subtraction” have since been inferior. Rather, I bring up Ico in particular, because there seems to be this general perception that minimalism results in a crippling lack of mechanical depth. That is, many seem to believe that discarding and minimizing a game’s various elements results in a dearth of tangible mechanics or imagery to cling onto, and thus appears to result in an empty and vacuous experience with little to justify further replays or deeper dives. To me though, this line of thought fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of addition by subtraction. It was never about creating mechanically deep systems with limitless possibilities like an immersive sim or a sandbox. Rather, the philosophy aimed to remove excess layers that distracted from the game’s “more realistic feeling of presence”, such as removing optional bosses and landmarks in Shadow of the Colossus or reducing enemy types in Ico to just a single design. In fairness, the goal wasn't just to remove extraneous elements that made something feel overly “gamey,” but also to marry mechanics in a way where the invisible layer of intended design never made itself too apparent (i.e. hiding the user interface in Shadow of the Colossus outside of fights). It was not just addition by subtraction; it was also addition through illusion.

To that end, I firmly believe that Journey is the best Team Ico game that Fumito Ueda never directed. Journey’s design philosophy was not necessarily revolutionary for its time, considering its predecessors in the forms of Flower and Ico, nor was its ultimate goal of reaching a final destination via walking/jumping/flying mechanics particularly exemplary. What was exemplary was its level of care and precision in how it implemented said minimalist design philosophy. Every time I play through Journey, I pick up more subtle details through its fusion of audio-visual presentation and gameplay that seemed so clear and intuitive that I had taken their presence for granted. There are the obvious strengths, like how Journey wordlessly conveys your path forward by keeping the shining peak of the mountain visible at all times while outside, or how it uses consistent visual language through cloth creatures and strips to demarcate safe zones where the player can recharge their scarf. But there’s more beneath the surface; what about the game's sneaky introduction to the sand-sliding mechanic from the introductory dune so it’s no longer unfamiliar during the exhilarating and committal descent, or how there’s a section of the underground that’s filled with these scarf jellyfish tinted in blue allowing you to remain in flight that evokes the feeling of being underwater, foreshadowing the next section as a tower ascension where the player must continually breach the surface to “swim” and escape? Sure, everyone knows about how the bitter cold disempowers the player by slowing their movement and lowering the scarf’s energy gauge, but I usually don’t hear about how strong winds can chip away at the scarf’s capacity itself or how it reduces the volume and area of effect of your shouts, making it far more difficult to restore your energy gauge from the growing frostbite.

There’s also the overlooked audio aspect of Journey. Granted, everyone loves to discuss the soundtrack’s thematics, like how the final chord of Journey’s motif never resolves a single time in any track until the end of Apotheosis or for that matter, how all the instruments are never fully present until that final ascent, when the entire orchestra finally comes together as one only to slowly fall away as the player and the world fade away. Yet, the sound design regarding Journey’s implementation of said soundtrack often goes underappreciated. Again, there are plenty of clear strengths that have been widely discussed, such as the punctuated stillness of the desert dunes providing room for the piddle paddle of the player’s footsteps amongst the vast desert winds and eventually swelling into triumphant bursts of adventure. But again, there are little subtleties that speak to the soundtrack’s interactivity, like how the backing drum during the aforementioned underwater section gives the track the impression of being muted and seamlessly drops this filter once the player breaches the surface, or how the player’s shouts are always in the key of the backing track’s scale, meaning that the introduced notes remain within the game’s tonality. It’s these little things that further round out Journey’s experience; the music is so seamlessly woven in that it takes a discerning ear to pick out every specific detail, in such a way where it feels like the soundtrack is organically supplementing every memorable moment of the game.

Of course, it’s not enough to just handle the basics well, even if there’s a master’s touch present to carefully disguise these additions so silently. As I mentioned before, popular works need compelling hooks to draw in an audience, but they also need an element of danger to keep that audience engaged. In the case of Journey, Thatgamecompany tackles this through their stealth multiplayer. This is where Journey easily outclasses its successors and may in fact, even have one-upped Ico. If Ico’s main limitation was a lack of autonomy for any non-player characters, then Journey circumvents this problem entirely by replacing the AI with real players instead. The loose implementation adds a catch: nothing in the game aside from the final completion screen listing your companion(s)’ name(s) ever hints on this, and not once is the player given instructions or suggestions on how to interact with said players. The only obvious mechanical incentive from cooperating with other players is the ability to recharge one another’s scarves via proximity/shouts, and there’s no consequence to merely abandoning random players or quitting in the middle of a session. It’s what makes this multiplayer so compelling; many times you’ll find other players just wandering about by themselves, despawning, or quickly rushing ahead without care towards your presence. There’s no guarantee that they’ll cooperate… which makes that one instance where they do that much more memorable. In this sense, I think Jenova Chen and his team solved two problems at once: the aforementioned challenge of granting outside elements a degree of realism, and his own personal challenge of creating a minimalist environment where players had no incentives to act in bad faith despite never having any major incentives to cooperate either, resulting in seemingly organic interactions.

Perhaps it is cheating to state that this spontaneous element is what gives Journey a step-up over its peers, but I also can’t deny that this same feature is exactly what lends the game its identity. It’s hard to provide drastically different experiences for focused single player games after all; no matter how much Fumito Ueda may have insisted that he was inspired by emergent gameplay mechanics and player autonomy to allow for more diverse experiences, there remains an upper limit upon how far those experiences can unravel. However, Thatgamecompany’s take upon the “single-player odyssey” alongside the game’s cyclical nature and short runtime means that Journey is a far more replayable experience while remaining every bit as compelling as its competition. Even after multiple trips up the summit, I continue to be amazed by the thoughtfulness shown to me by other players. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen down the temple from being blown away by the wind, only for my companion to jump down with me, or how many trips through the blizzard were spent slowly trudging together mashing my shout, just like strangers on a cold winter’s night huddling together for warmth while shouting cries of encouragement to take one more step forward. In essence, Journey didn't need an intricate or elaborate story told with fanciful cutscenes and voice-acting; it simply needed to provide a backbone with no other contradicting elements, allowing players to form their own stories by experiencing the game on their own terms.

Journey isn’t mechanically rich or wildly innovative in terms of its scope, but it doesn’t have to be. Rather, it’s a deceptively simple yet meticulous and thoughtfully different approach upon a respected design philosophy, which aimed to further refine said formula by whittling down any elements that detracted from the game’s constructed sense of reality. Similarly, it doesn't feel the need to present a grandiose narrative, instead stripping away any specific contextual layers as to allow players to create memorable experiences with no conflicting moments in-between. I should be sick of this formula after tackling so many misguided copycats, and I can't deny that I was afraid to label yet another old favorite as propped up by nostalgia. Thankfully, my fears have been assuaged. I keep waiting for the day where I’ll finally be content putting this down forever… but that day has yet to come. I was not the first adventurer to embark upon this pilgrimage, nor will I be the last. Maybe I just need to get over my cynicism and accept that there was never anything to be cynical of to begin with. I’m sure more developers will continue to lazily carbon copy one of my favorites until the end of time, but that doesn’t mean the good times have to end.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Happy new year, and here’s to another journey around the sun.

Another Yakuza game down this is the most mixed bag in the series so far, i'm going to break it down without spoilers into different characters and sections bc I have a lot of thoughts about this one, first I wanna get into each character's gameplay, main minigame(s) and a nonspoiler opinion on their story

Akiyama:
Gameplay wise he is great, kinda like Rush style, really fast and kick focused, my second personal favorite to play as in this game, his music goes crazy and his combos and unlocks are really fun. His story was the strongest of the four individual chapters to me and he also honestly had some of the stronger side content too. Recruiting Allies is fun and easy and Hostess maker is an awful nightmarish slog like in Yakuza 3 that I still dunno how they thought "yeah ship it like that"

Saejima:
His gameplay is slow, clunky and boring, he hits so hard he trivializes most fights but he's just so unsatisfying to play, his story starts really strong but has an extremely awkward and pointless scene that made me cringe and just kinda falls flat as the game goes on, his side stories are also very nothing I felt no attachment to any of them and the final one is just kinda random. Fighter Maker is up there as one of the worst minigames in the series too, just pure rng. Saejima is ugly to look at and his gameplay is ugly to play all around I had to take long breaks during his chapter it was like the worst of Yakuza 3 rolled into a single man.

Tanimura: His gameplay is... I don't know? He has an awkward but sort of fun parry, bizarre combos, he isnt bad to play by any means he just feels like unfinished or something to me, I still had fun in most of his fights. His story was extremely nothing to me I honestly couldn't even tell you most of what happened in it, his side stories were EXTREMELY good though I wish they focused more on that and his relationship with foreigners instead of the stuff about his father. The Police Scanner is pretty fun if a little repetitive, its some neat flavor though.

Kiryu:
What is there to be said about the Dragon of Dojima? His chapters are extremely short but fun if a little weak plot wise, gameplay wise though he feels fantastic and you can get a lot of his signature moves pretty early. His side stories are alright but very short, the gang fighting is a little slow and boring I didn't end up finishing it, I'll come back and do it later one day.

Overall thoughts:
Gameplay is a huge step up from 3 they feel like they are from different planets entirely, however the plot is a huge step down from the previous games. I couldn't tell you any of the villain motivations and the constant awful plot twists made it hard to care about anything. I really honestly have no idea what the main villain even wanted. The story being so bad is a huge negative because it made it very hard to keep going in a pretty beefy game, the sub stories being alright but nothing special didn't help too much. What did help is arguably the best soundtrack so far and fun gameplay, also the Amon fights in this game are actually really balanced? And fun?? Shocking!!! Really hope 5 is a return to form this was overall a low point for me.

I won’t mince my words here: the last month has been a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some solid titles that I finally got to finish and everything’s been interesting enough to where I still wrote about it, but nothing’s quite blown my mind recently. Flywrench might have set the bar a bit too high, for better or for worse. So, it looks like it’s time for another nostalgia reset; what better way to get myself back in gear than to go back to the source? Consider this write-up a follow up to my original Donkey Kong Country piece; since I think I’ve fleshed out obstacle escalation theory a ton by this point, I’ll focus more on differences between the two games this time around.

There’s an old Eurogamer review round-up that sort of laments the lack of differences between the original DKC and Diddy’s Kong Quest, referring to the sequel as a victim of “lack of ambition.” I honestly don’t agree with this assessment; Donkey Kong Country 2 preserves much of the original design philosophy for sure, but the game’s levels are often structured so differently with so many new ideas that I find it quite baffling to describe the sequel as “not terribly imaginative.” If anything, there were so many new ideas that many of them led to a lot of dissonance regarding expectations of flow and functionality between the two games. I’ll try to go over as many of the outstanding features as I can, but first, we should address the change in scope that seems to have thrown off so many of us, myself included.

In a retrospective Retro Gamer interview, lead designer Gregg Mayles describes this best: “If we had made it speed runs again then there wouldn’t have been much scope for us to go anywhere different with it.” The focus then, shifted from a speedrunning-friendly momentum-based platformer to a platformer that emphasized exploration, all while still emphasizing fluidity through interchangeable moving parts. Mayles later adds, “[they] wanted to maintain the same ‘go first’ gameplay where all the barrels and baddies were set up so if you went first time – or got the timing right – then the levels were very fluid, but I also wanted to add something new to it. So the first one was very linear, and the second one introduced exploration.”

This is perhaps the most pronounced improvement from the original to the sequel: secret finding and completion now feels significantly more intuitive and fulfilling. While I never personally had much of an issue with exploration in the original, I have to admit that there isn’t much of an incentive trying to find bonus rooms outside of collectibles that all lead to extra lives and the thrill of stumbling upon treasure troves through tougher maneuvers. Diddy’s Kong Quest, however, shows far more focus: the usual spelling and slot minigames alongside treasure troves have been replaced with timed challenges that actively test players’ abilities as par the level’s themes: for example, the bonus area in the first half of Screech’s Sprint requires players to switch between characters to balance out cartwheel jumps and hovering, a bonus area in the windy Gusty Glade requires players to time jumps across dragonflies while being boosted by a current, and so on so forth. Moreover, secret entrances and bonus barrels are more clearly marked with elements such as stray bananas, enemy clusters guarding paths, platforms that are just off-screen, and even banana arrows redirecting players to areas of interest or spelling out button prompts to supercharge animal buddies/team throw. One particularly clever example comes in the level “Target Terror”, where an enemy throwing barrels at you in the car ahead drops to a track below the main track if you decide to make the jump, signifying for future runs that there’s probably something hidden below.

Another improvement towards secret finding comes in the form of cannonballs that have to be carried across segments of the level to activate a cannon into potential bonus sections; it’s a welcome change since it pools the difficulty into the task of ferrying the cannonball while grappling/avoiding enemies inbetween, instead of attempting to create difficulty via obscuring the bonus area entrance. Finally, the reward is also greatly enhanced: instead of more lives to throw into the fray, you receive Kremcoins that can be used to unlock guarded golden barrels by Klubba and access tougher levels in the Lost World to achieve that true ending and snag that sweet, sweet 102% completion. Again, I never found the original limited exploration in DKC to be much of a detriment, but I nevertheless believe that the exploration loop feels much more fleshed out and substantial this time around.

This layer of calculation behind the mechanics translates to practically every single one of the mechanics in the sequel, starting with the characters themselves. It’d be easy to write off Dixie Kong as a Diddy Kong clone, considering that their weight and physics are about the same and Dixie was originally created by iterating upon Diddy’s design in the first place. However, let’s consider Donkey Kong’s value as a controllable character in the original; outside of being a heavier character to one hit KO Armys, Krushas, and Klumps by jumping (Diddy must generally use barrels and cartwheels to defeat these enemies, or in the case of Krushas, often outright avoid them), as well as the abilities to hand slap the ground (not really useful in the original outside of collecting some stray items with no hints and defeating stunned Rock Krocs in one level) and holding the barrel directly above his head, Donkey Kong mostly serves as the character you play when you don’t feel like risking the more agile Diddy Kong to potential death. Diddy’s quicker cartwheel and faster jump means that he is the weapon of choice for most of the platforming in the long expanses of the original DKC, and Donkey Kong is often there just as a “back-up” second life.

In Diddy’s Kong Quest, Dixie and Diddy are stratified enough to where your second character is more than just a representation that you can take a second hit. Diddy is of course, still a pleasure to control thanks to his quick cartwheel jump providing a “low and long” form of movement, and holding the barrel directly in front gives Diddy a quick form of defense for approaching enemies. Dixie, on the other hand, snags Donkey Kong’s utility of holding the barrel directly above the character’s head and utilizing overhead throws with a bit extra. All of her moves involve her long blonde ponytail, including her ability to hover in mid air by holding down Y to slow her descent and reach dangling collectibles while more carefully maneuvering past flying obstacles. As a result, it might be easier to think of Diddy as the better character for the classic speedy platforming experience, while Dixie is not quite as agile but is extremely helpful for spanning larger gaps and taking your time while ascending/descending vertically.

Moreover, the sequel also places additional emphasis upon having both characters available to you at once. Most of this comes in the form of the team-throw: you can pick up your partner at any time and angle the throw to reach collectibles and platforms/hooks that would normally be impossible to jump to. Additionally, since Diddy and Dixie are both lightweights, Krunchas can only be defeated with the team-throw outside of barrel usage and animal buddies, since jumping onto Krunchas will just result in Diddy/Dixie bouncing off. Finally, certain barrel cannons are marked with either Diddy or Dixie’s face, meaning that you will need to either be using that particular character or throwing that particular character into the cannon to be launched. Having both characters on your screen has an inherently deeper meaning than just possessing another hit; not only will you need to pick the correct character for the best approach, you must often have both on-hand to maximize opportunities with the team-throw and be allowed access to character-coded barrels.

Regarding character control, animal buddies have also been greatly buffed. The original was admittingly a bit more wishy-washy towards usage of animal buddies; while they were intended as a power-up, levels had to nevertheless be designed without explicit usage of them, resulting in many situations where animal buddies at best felt like extraneous helpers that could sometimes help unlock secret areas and provided another hit point of health, and at worst feeling like an active detriment (ex: Rambi’s awkward size and maneuverability in Manic Mincers, or Espresso’s inconsistency safely walking over Klap Traps in Orangutan Gang). As seen previously, animal buddies like Rambi and Engarde can throw out attack hitboxes to break fake walls for secrets, but Diddy’s Kong Quest goes beyond that and often sculpts entire playgrounds for animal buddy abilities, going as far as to include animal buddy transformation barrels for particular sections.

Toxic Tower is a great example of this in action: you start with a very open and wide section that requires very high and lengthy jumps, often on Zingers, to scale the initial heights, as per Rattly the Snake’s speciality with the charged superjump. Then, the stage transitions to a more enclosed series of chambers and tight passageways, with tons of vertical navigation and roaming enemies that require Squawk’s flight and egg shots to clear. Finally, the stage’s final stretch is a straight shot up to the exit, forcing the player to rely upon Squitter the Spider to quickly create temporary web platforms to scale up the chute while pursued by the ever-rising toxic waste. As an addendum to maintaining composure with the animal buddy, “No Animal Signs” will force the Kongs to abandon that particular playstyle while often rewarding players that manage to get that far with their animal buddy intact with a reward, such as banana bunches, extra lives, or in some cases, barrels that can be used (and only appear in that particular fashion) to open up yet another secret area. The end result is yet another design tool that’s been pushed to its furthest extents so far for more varied level structures, broadly increasing the DKC toolkit while maintaining the same core principles.

On that note, Donkey Kong Country 2’s most defining experimental level design trend is perhaps its enthusiasm to dabble with verticality. While the original only had one primarily vertical level in Slip Slide Ride, the sequel happily mingles with scaling heights every other level or so, with some levels that resemble a spiraling zig-zag with interspersed horizontal platforming like Windy Well while others commit hard to a full scalar climb such as the aforementioned Toxic Tower. It seems antithetical at first to design so many vertical levels in a game that’s practically mastered its horizontal traversal with the fast cartwheel jump for maintaining momentum, but in my opinion, it’s simply a different language of platforming that builds off the same organic obstacle escalation and fluid movement, and with that different language comes a different set of tools to express the language more fluently. Skyhooks, barrel cannons, animal buddy abilities such as Rattly’s superjump and Squitter’s temporary web platforms, climbable ropes and chains, and even certain water levels that experiment with the changing height of the liquid and interspersing dry land platforms are just some of the many level elements that are utilized to aid ascending player movement, alongside the usual hazards to spur players into action such as the aforementioned rising toxic goo in Toxic Tower and the bramble walls encountered while flapping about with Squawks. Even within this new territory, DKC 2 subverts its own set expectations with two levels that force players to travel downwards, in the form of Parrot Chute Panic (which has players slowly descend a Zinger infested hive with the help of purple budget Squawks) and Black Ice Blitz (which as a foil to Parrot Chute Panic, goads players into quickly descending a slippery icy chasm to avoid being swarmed by grounded foes). Though it is easy to criticize the sequel for taking such a seemingly drastically different approach to level design, I do believe that Diddy’s Kong Quest deserves to stand on its own merits and absolutely presents a more calculated and methodical, yet just as focused platforming experience.

What stands out to me as this game’s greatest strength is that no idea is ever repeated verbatim, both within the game and with respect to the original DKC. A great way to illustrate these wrinkles that are used to diversify level navigation is through examination of the three minecart levels, which have now been rethemed as roller coasters. Target Terror has Diddy and Dixie leaping between skull cars to hit green checkmark barrels while avoiding red X barrels to open up closed gates and avoid closing already open ones. Meanwhile, Rickety Race recontextualizes the roller coaster ride as a straight up competition, incentivizing players to defeat and bypass enemy skull cars to eventually stomp the goon in first place and snag the level’s DK coin. Finally, Haunted Hall introduces the timer into the equation, and requires the player to collide into + barrels while avoiding – barrels to maintain timer longevity and avoid certain doom from the pursuing Kackles. At the end of the day, all of these examples are horizontal auto-scrollers, but thanks to the varied level objectives defining how traversal must be accomplished, the levels still feel distinct without any single one bleeding into another.

I could go on and on about the sheer amount of fresh level elements introduced in DKC 2 and just how many of them remain memorable to me, from the air draft balloons in Red Hot Ride to the rolling giant tires of Jungle Jinx to the usage of Clapper seals in Lava Lagoon purifying the lava into water and creating this mad scramble to make it in one piece to the other side before the liquid heats up again, and so on so forth. Sure, most of these elements are only present in one or two levels and could be written off as “gimmicks,” but that doesn’t take away from their value. Rare’s willingness to throw realism out the window and tinker with so many different kinds of mechanisms may seem at first quite unfocused, but by embracing experimentation that’s all designed to keep the player moving, that eagerness actually points to a deeper level of commitment that few platformers manage to effectively achieve.

Of course, there’s another piece to the puzzle that stops the game from ever feeling too stale, and that’s the theming itself. Again, Rare’s abandonment of realism is a key motivation; while the original DKC was often limited to natural landscapes and caves outside of Kremkroc Industries, Diddy’s Kong Quest commits fully to the absurdity of fighting alligator pirates in an unfamiliar land and as a result, greatly diversifies its various settings from the decks and sails of the Gangplank Galleon (a fitting beginning, considering that the previous adventure ended here), to the glowing infernal pits of Crocodile Cauldron, to the abandoned urban amusement wasteland of Krazy Kremland that nature has begun reclaiming with brambles and overgrown beehives. You don’t need me to tell you that this is one of the most richly textured games on the SNES, with plenty of corresponding level elements such as the sticky honey walls of Hornet Hole and the eerie disappearing ropes of Ghostly Grove to further sell the exoticism and accentuate the level of detail presented in each environment.

I’d be remiss though, to not spend a paragraph gushing about the soundtrack, something that I’d consider a formality at this point while praising the game. If the original Donkey Kong Country OST was a 10, then this is an 11. Not only are there practically no wasted tracks within the repertoire, but also every notable track ends up being a standout. I’m led to believe that David Wise was in a class of his own, because even to this day, the diverse and richly layered instrumentation is like no other. The whistling wind of Jib Jig, the bubbling lava of Hot Head Bop, the screams of excitement from Disco Train: the sheer attention to detail to embed all these different environmental SFX into the tracks themselves so that the effects never break your attention away from the task of platforming is incredible. It’s the cherry on top of this whole package; sure there’s a part of me that might get a little annoyed falling several stories in yet another mine shaft level, but at least I get to do it while the steel hammer samples in Mining Melancholy go for another run.

I’ll quickly address the lingering complaint that I had from the first game as well; I had previously lamented that bosses in Donkey Kong Country seemed to be a one and done affair, though the sequel does a great job substantially increasing their interactivity. Some are still a bit simple but at least have some extra steps to them: these include the first Krow fight, which you can clear by jumping on egg projectiles and then waiting for Krow to run into the held egg (though it is at least justified by being the first boss fight) and Kudgel, whose boss fight becomes a case of “jump when he lands to avoid getting stunlocked” and then ramming TNT barrels into him when appropriate. Fortunately, the highlights leave these fights in the dust. The clear standout for me here is the fight against Kleever, this giant possessed cutlass that slashes at you relentlessly while you jump to and fro between skyhooks dodging fireballs and waiting for the cannonball to respawn to get your hit in. There’s also a boss fight vs yet another giant bee, but unlike the fight vs Queen B in DKC, this King Zing fight lets you play as Squawks and shoot eggs at the giant bee’s stinger, alternating with an invincible phase where you have to dodge spikes in the closest thing resembling a bullet hell in the series and then segueing into a quickfire second phase where Squawks has to defeat an outer circle of respawning normal sized Zingers before landing the final hit.

Even the final fights vs K Rool (sorry, Kaptain K Rool) have been juiced up, with plenty more jumping and rolling to be done to dodge scores of spiked cannon balls as well as some colorful gas clouds that can mess with your control scheme or movement speed if you’re not careful. The first fight is a bit longer than previous boss fights since it serves as the final boss gauntlet, but there's at least some wiggle room since a Buddy Barrel is given to you at the start of each new phase if you've taken a hit. While the true final boss fight in Krocodile Kore more or less uses the same types of attacks as the first encounter, I appreciate that they’ve at least upped the ante with some new attack patterns and scaling everything they have to throw at you in one “phase” before letting you plug up his blunderbuss with a cannonball for good. All in all, it’s improvements across the board for bosses, and while some of them are still a bit lame, it’s a vast jump up from the one-dimensional and often palette swapped fights of the original game.

So, with all the welcome changes out of the way, do I really have any outstanding major complaints to spill? I’ll admit, I often struggle to find any substantial errs in Diddy’s Kong Quest. It’s a more difficult game for sure, but I also find it surprisingly fair: the game gives you plenty of leeway with all the bananas, KONG letters, and hidden balloons and coins to win more lives at Swanky’s Bonus Bonanza, assuming you’re playing competently enough and exploring levels to their greatest extent. Moreover, most levels are pretty condensed and usually don’t take more than several minutes to clear when carefully approached, with plenty of Buddy Barrels and the Star Barrel halfway through the level as fail-safes if you end up taking a hit or two. I’ve also found during my experience that the obstacle escalation theory continues to holds true, and that dangerous moments are often greeted with plenty of warning prior and enough time to react and adapt accordingly, with instances where I’m confronted with something that I’m genuinely not prepared for few and far between. With that said, there are a few exceptions:

- Web Woods is often cited as one of the most notorious levels in the game: the majority of this stage is spent playing as Squitter, with large stretches of abyss that have to be crossed with disposable web platforms while sniping any Zingers and Mini Nectys in the way. Upon my replay, I don’t think it’s as hard as others make it out to be, but it definitely feels a bit longer because Web Woods forces either extremely careful movement and web shots when going fast ( see Mike Kanis’ recording for an example ) or for casual playthroughs, steady and often strenuous platforming across daunting gaps while juggling enemies at the same time. I’ll concede that the level could probably be improved upon with a few smaller gaps and removing the extraneous introductory Kongs platforming section, but otherwise, I think this level serves its purpose well and just takes a bit of time to get used to. Though, I do think that putting the DK coin in the end-of-level target is pretty lazy and evil considering that the coin flashes in the display for less than half a second and you'll have to replay the whole level again if you were just a hair off.

- Screech’s Sprint is probably the most significant difficulty spike present in DKC 2 in my opinion (which is saying something considering Toxic Tower is the level right before this), and as the final level before the first K Rool fight, is unfortunately a bit of a slog and probably my least favorite level in the game. The first half of the level is solid end-game platforming through the brambles and isn’t too bad, but the second half of the level is an extremely tight race as Squawks against his goth counterpart Screech, that has to be played close to perfectly if you’re not aware beforehand of the many shortcuts hidden in the brambles since second place will result in instant death. That’s not even bringing into account the KONG letters that are all present in the race segment, or the hidden DK coin (that can at least be collected in a throwaway run). Needless to say, it’s a cool concept, but there’s not much time given for the player to scale up and adapt to the sudden rush of precision required for the race or to discover all the ins and outs of the course, so if any level in the game feels like throwing away lives and banging your head against the wall, I’d wager that it would probably be this one. Also, it overrides Stickerbush Symphony with its own theme... which isn’t a bad track, but it's automatically my least favorite track in the OST because anything that takes away from the GOAT of VGM is an instant con in my book.

- Animal Antics is generally the final level tackled by most players who are going for the true final boss fight (as the final level in the Lost World), and while I hesitate to call any single level gimmicky, I suppose this is the one that comes closest to the definition. It’s a marathon that involves the usage of all five animal buddies, which already sounds like quite an exhausting affair. However, it’s exacerbated by the fact that the first two animal buddy segments (Rambi and Engarde) are pretty straightforward by this point, but the next two right after the Star Barrel in the form of Squitter and Squawks generally take up a lot more time, especially because the Squawks segment requires you to navigate yet another bramble maze while a mercurial wind current keeps blowing you left and right and forces you to alternate between fighting the wind or fighting the controls to avoid being blown astray by the wind. The final segment with Rattly is not particularly difficult, but it sure is intimidating as hell since there are no Buddy Barrels to be found there and you’ve probably already taken a hit as Squawks, turning what should be the victory lap of a marathon into a one of the most nerve-wracking level finishers, since dying here means getting sent back to the Star Barrel and having to do Squitter, Squawks, and Rattly all over again. It probably doesn’t help that Toxic Tower utilizes the animal buddy swap formula more succinctly either, with a smoother difficulty curve to boot.

Besides these three levels though, I can’t really say that the difficulty in Diddy’s Kong Quest ever felt discouraging to me. If anything, I found my second full playthrough even more fulfilling this time around; while I was still in the process of mastering the controls during my first run, I really got the chance to flesh out my understanding of the levels during my replay and spend more time adapting and figuring out how all the different moving parts and hazardous elements fit together in different ways. With so many new combinations to consider, I could honestly keep at this for days, even weeks upon end putting my skills to the test; more depth via tighter execution barriers from tougher obstacle courses with even more secrets to explore results in a higher skill ceiling after all. It’s really quite rewarding to figure out game-plans for each level and grind out the specific inputs necessary; as Gregg Mayles put it, the fluidity and momentum is still there, just a tad bit more difficult to grasp, and that makes actually achieving it all that much sweeter.

While the jump from the original Donkey Kong Country to Diddy’s Kong Quest came with mostly scores of improvements (even if most of the improvements were over features that never genuinely bothered me in the first place), there is one quality of life issue that does weigh on my mind as an obvious area of improvement. Aside from the tracked Kremcoins and optional DK coins, a third type of collectible in the form of banana coins is also present. However, just like the lives and banana count, the banana coin count is reset whenever the system is turned off since it’s not tracked, which becomes a bit obnoxious because banana coins are mandatory whenever requesting services from the other Kongs, from asking Cranky for hints and Funky for flights to other worlds, to even saving the game itself. It’s at least slightly mitigated since banana coins are plentiful within levels and are respawned every time you revisit, and the first time visiting Wrinkly and Funky for saving and flights respectively in each area will always be free. Nevertheless, I concede that this is a bit of a barrier for newer players who feel the need to save more often or for players who don’t have as much time on their hands to commit to longer sessions to build up lives and banana coin stocks, and Rare did seem to learn from this since paying to save is limited to just Diddy’s Kong Quest in the original trilogy.

All in all, I’m not sure if I have any far-reaching takeaways to present here or if there were really any lessons to be learned in the first place, but I’m glad I finally found the time and the opportunity to come back to really flesh out my understanding of a title that once frustrated the hell out of me as a kid. Sure, I could join the never-ending debate of which title has the greater legacy or “aged better,” but at the end of the day, I don’t think I necessary prefer Diddy’s Kong Quest over the original Donkey Kong Country or vice versa; I simply think that they’re different appeals for different moods. If I want to feel good about myself and just dash through levels in my comfort zone, I’ll pick up the original and spend a couple of hours speedrunning Blackout Basement or Loopy Lights. However, if I want make my hands sweat a bit more and really put my execution to the test, then DKC 2 will be my weapon of choice and I’ll get to feel overwhelmed while the woozy arpeggios of Forest Interlude roll over me once more. Whichever one I pick, I think I’d have a pretty damn good day.

As it stands, I’m not quite ready to put Donkey Kong Country 2 on a pedestal as my favorite 2D momentum-based platformer of all time. That said, I’ll call it an “honorable draw” as Gregg Mayles stated five years ago, and it’s about time that I started being more open with myself regarding my appreciation for what Diddy’s Kong Quest brought to the table. Hopefully, all this musing about will encourage some more to do the same. Thanks for reading, everyone.

When it comes to the video game industry, there are always going to be things that are inevitable. There’s gonna be a new crappy sports game every year, even though many will still buy it anyway, companies will always overwork their staff and treat them like shit, even though that issue goes beyond video games, there will be plenty of big achievements and disappointments to be seen all throughout the year, and of course, Mega Man will get a new game. Or at least, that was an inevitability back in the day, but now it is a rarity more than anything. Yes, it really just seems like it wouldn’t have been a complete year back then without some kind of Mega Man product coming out, because if this didn’t happen, the world may end up exploding. At least, that could be what Capcom’s thought process was with the series back then, hence why so many of them came out, and while many people may have gotten sick of it, I wouldn’t say I fit into this category, as I continue down the line of these generic, yet still enjoyable titles with Mega Man IV.

One of the words you could use to describe the Game Boy Mega Man games wouldn’t be “innovative”. For every single game so far, while there has been some new elements seen here or there, such as a new character or new weapon, for the most part, they have been the same old games that many have expected from them at this point, reusing many different robot masters, weapons, and stages from the NES games to the point where it felt incredibly stale to most. However, thankfully, for the fourth entry in this sub-series, there was NEW STUFF!......... somewhat, which not only made for an interesting entry to jump back into, but also yet another enjoyable one as well. Sure, the new stuff that was introduced wasn’t too major, and the same gripes people would have about the previous games still applies here, but for those who don’t care about that, we have another fun romp to blast through and enjoy.

The story is a deep, complex narrative about the destruction of mankind, a study covering the world’s justice system, and a moral dilemma about what Mega Man is truly fighting for………………… nah, just kidding, it’s Dr. Wily trying to take over the world again and Mega Man has to stop him (you really expected anything else?), the graphics are Game Boy graphics, using the exact same sprite style as all the other previous games, which still looks good, so I’m not too bothered by it, the music is good, once again feature Game Boy renditions of previous themes, which all sound good here, and the original tracks aren’t that bad either, the control is the same as the previous games, so nothing to complain about there, and the gameplay is exactly what you have come to expect at this point.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Mega Man once again, take on plenty of different levels to fight many familiar Robot Masters, jump and shoot your way through plenty of different enemies, environments, and obstacles, gather plenty of health and ammo pickups, cannisters, and extra lives to help you out along your journey, take down many different bosses from the Robot Masters to Wily’s machines, and gather plenty of different new weapons to use to your advantage in the stages that lie ahead. It is all what you have come to expect from a Game Boy Mega Man game, but I am happy to say that, for the first time in this series, there is actually some new stuff for once!

First of all, there is now a new type of item called the P-Chip that you collect throughout the game, and you can now use it at Dr. Light’s shop in between levels. You can use these chips to purchase things such as extra lives, E-Tanks and weapon tanks, getting the ammo of your weapons refilled, and even the Energy Balancer, which I didn’t think would be brought back this soon in the series. Sure, this isn’t anything all that special, and most of the stuff you can get from the shops you can just find in the regular levels, but the fact that it is there at all is a nice little addition. Alongside this, the collectibles from the NES games also make a comeback, with two sets of letters both spelling out Beat and Wily respectively. Of course, from the first set of letters, you get to use Beat once again, which is always nice to see, and as for the Wily letters, they allow you to….. beat the game. Kind of a waste if you ask me, but hey, the letters themselves are pretty easy to find and collect, so it isn’t really that big of a deal.

If all that doesn’t get you excited to jump into another one of these titles, nor does the inclusion of a new Mega Man Killer do that for you, then there is no real reason to justify you seeking this out then. It is, once again, your typical classic Mega Man game, which may satisfy the huge Mega Man nerds like myself, but for others, it would be seen more as a waste of time at the end of the day. When it comes to actual problems that I have with the game, I have one minor one that doesn’t ruin the experience, but it is worth mentioning nonetheless. In this game, whenever you fire off a charged shot, there is a bit of recoil that happens as a result, and for anyone who has played any other Mega Man game before, you would know that this doesn’t happen at all in any other entry. This makes firing the charge shot feel weird, and it can kinda throw you off in precarious spots, but this is only on a few occasions, and it doesn’t become too big of an issue, with you being able to adjust pretty quickly.

Overall, despite the recoil thing being odd, as well as not too many big changes to the main formula, Mega Man IV is still another very fun entry in this repetitious, yet enjoying sub-series in this franchise, and I had a great time revisiting it after not playing it since I initially did a long time ago. I definitely recommend it for big Mega Man fans, as well as those who enjoyed the previous Game Boy titles, as this game delivers plenty of the same fun gameplay to you, but with a little extra sprinkled in, and that’s always nice to see. Although, with all that being said, why does Mega Man’s face on the cover art of this game look kinda… off? It’s like he is in the middle of transitioning out of that dumbass face from the Mega Man 3-5 box art, and into the normal one he would have for the rest of the series. I could make an entire video series analyzing these obnoxious box arts, because they are truly something to behold.

Game #442

(9-year-old's review, typed by his dad)

It's fun but hard. I like "bwomping", and most people call the square a cube even though it's not 3D! I like the game because it has a lot of customability, and you can do funny things. And my favorite part is playing the level Blast Processing (the bwomp level) because it has the best song in the game. My favorite custom song is called Endgame by Waterflame, and Waterflame makes good songs. And when will 2.2 come out? Robtop please. Please give us 2.2. Bye!

When it came to Nintendo’s earlier consoles, there were many different weird, yet sometime completely pointless peripherals that were made to “enhance” the gaming experiences. Some of these terrible peripherals include the Power Glove, a motion-based glove that barely worked whatsoever, the Power Pad, an exercise mat that also barely worked at all, R.O.B. the Robot, a robotic buddy that would help you out when playing certain Nintendo games (and by that, I mean only two games), and the Speedboard, which is literally just a piece of plastic that is supposed to “put the speed at your fingertips”, when in reality, you would just throw it in the trash. One of their best peripherals though, even if they can’t be used properly nowadays, would be with the NES Zapper and the Super Scope, which were both gun-based controllers you would use to play games like Duck Hunt and Battle Clash, and they worked pretty well for the most part. Alongside these gun-based peripherals would also be gun-based games that took full advantage of them, such as with today’s game, Yoshi’s Safari.

Ever since I had heard about this game, I had been interested in trying it out for the longest time for several reasons. One, it was a game where Mario wielded a GUN, which is something you don’t see every day, and two, because it did look like a genuinely fun game, even if it was all based around this light-gun gimmick. But like with everything else I was interested in, I put it off for a long time, until I ultimately decided to check it out, and yeah, it is a pretty good game. It wasn’t exactly amazing, and what you see is what you get, with no other extra bells or whistles, but it is definitely the best Super Scope game that I have ever played… which is mostly because it is the ONLY Super Scope game that I have ever played, but eh, semantics.

The story is one that is mostly what you would expect from a Yoshi/Mario game, where Bowser and his Koopalings DON’T kidnap Peach, but instead two other royal figures named King Fret and Prince Pine, steal the 12 gems, and take over Jewelry Land, and it is up to Mario and Yoshi to go shoot them all in the face to save the day, which is an incredibly silly and basic premise, and I love it, the graphics are pretty good, looking pretty similar to other Mario titles on the system, but is still very appealing to look at and experience, especially with some of the sprites of enemies, the music is… alright, being what you would expect out of a Mario/Yoshi soundtrack, but none of the tracks really stood out as being great or all that memorable, the control is extremely simple, especially if you are playing single-player, and you should get used to it very quickly (at least, if you are playing it on an emulator like I did, because I am not buying a bunch of stuff in order to play just one game), and the gameplay is also simple and straightforward, but it still provides for a decent amount of fun, despite how brief it is.

The game is a first-person shooter, where you take control of Mario while on the back of Yoshi, go through a set of twelve different levels all across Jewelry Land, shoot the fuck out of everything and anything that moves in front of you using the gun that Mario just has for some reason, gather plenty of coins, items, and powerups along the way to not only give you a helping hand, but to also help increase certain stats to make the journey easier, and take on plenty of bosses, with most of them being typical for a Mario game, except now they all have giant mechs for some reason, which is absolutely hilarious and weird as hell. It is extremely basic for an FPS, but for what it is, it can still be very fun to play, and it does make great use of the Super Scope.

The game primarily has you using the Super Scope to take out enemies, where in single player mode, Yoshi will automatically move forward, and all you need to worry about is just mowing down all the enemies in front of you. There is a two-player mode, where one of you controls Mario and just keeps shooting enemies, while the other person controls Yoshi, and is responsible for moving through the stage, which is most likely the best way to play through the game. I myself just stuck to the single-player mode, because I have no friends, and I still had a great time regardless, but I would definitely imagine that you and a friend could have a more enjoyable time with what we have here. And speaking of which, one of the biggest qualities that this game has going for it is the fact that it exists at all, at least for me. Seriously, it is a Mario FPS, which has never been done before and since, and while it is all as family-friendly as you would expect, the fact that it just has Mario carrying around this bazooka with nobody questioning it is hilarious. Although, I will have to dock some points for the fact that Mario does try to shoot at Yoshi at the end of every level. It is clear that his violent tendencies from Donkey Kong Jr. are still around, and I will not tolerate any harm to the good dino!

In terms of actual problems that the game has, one of the biggest that it has is that it is too short and too easy. While there are quite a few stages to tackle, you can beat all of them pretty easily in around an hour, which isn’t all that bad considering when it came out, but what also doesn’t help is how overpowered you are. The game gives you more then enough ammo to take on anything that comes your way, which recharges really quickly, and on top of that, all of the powerups that you can get will make it so that it is impossible to lose. I didn’t die once throughout my entire playthrough, and yeah, maybe if I were actually using the real hardware, it could potentially be harder, but I highly doubt that. But hey, to the game’s credit, it does give you a code for a Hard Mode once you beat it, and there are multiple pathways you can take in levels, so if you are looking for a more difficult and somewhat varied experience with a second playthrough, there ya go.

Overall, despite its short length and easy-as-hell difficulty, I still ended up having a lot of fun with Yoshi’s Safari, with it definitely being the best Nintendo light-gun game I have ever played, and I do wanna eventually give it a shot on the harder difficulty to see how much it could ramp up after what I had experienced. I would definitely recommend it for those who are Mario fans, as well as those who are fans of the Super Scope, because it is definitely the best game to make use of this peripheral out of all of them. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go hunt down Mario myself. Again, I will not tolerate any harm being brought to Yoshi, and that plumber has gone too far.

Game #436

Lets start out, this game is incredible as a souls like, its put its own twist and creativity behind it!
The world, lore and bosses are amazing!

Weapon mechanics are interesting although technique seems to be a good way to go.

To think this is an indie game baffles be!
Some Bosses are a bit annoying especially with how many are 2 phases. seems a bit of a strange decision

Creativity… imagination… these two elements are some of the driving forces behind the human mind and spirit, allowing many to create and share wondrous things for hundreds of years, and will lead to many other wondrous inventions in the years to come. Along with the many things made from these two elements, there have also been many different products made to help people express their creativity, whether they be tools to help you flourish in a specific field, or products that are primarily designed to allow you to create whatever you want, with the only limits being, again, your imagination. This also applies to video games, with there being plenty that’s sole purpose is to allow you to either make your own games, such as with Dreams and Game Builder Garage (you know, back when people still played those games), or just make whatever. One of the oldest, yet still enduring examples of these games that many still remember to this day would be with Mario Paint.

Somehow in the 23 years that I have been on this planet, I had never played Mario Paint until now, and I am not sure why. Maybe it’s because I never owned a copy of the game or a SNES mouse, but seeing how many still use and create things with the game to this day, it is definitely something that I have been very curious about for a long time. So, I decided now was finally the time to start messing around in it to see how it is, and yeah, people weren’t kidding, this is a pretty great creation game. Sure, some aspects about it may be a little dated, but for an art game that was made over 30 years ago, it is impressive to see how much it has held up after so long, and there is a lot to appreciate and love about it.

The graphics are extremely basic for a SNES game, at least in terms of the interfaces and icons, but they still look good and have a lot of character to enjoy, the music is iconic, also being incredibly simplistic, but it gives off the exact vibes that this game needs, and gets you excited and ready to start making things, the controls took a little getting used to, considering this is the first time I have ever used the SNES mouse (even if it was through an emulator), but this didn’t take long to do at all, and it does help out a lot in being pretty precise with what you are making, and the “gameplay” does offer a lot more than you would initially think, allowing to express your creativity in many ways while creating plenty of memories along the way.

The game is an art creation game, where you are given access to several different means of creating things, with the first of these, of course, being your typical drawing mode. You can use plenty of different colors, patterns, and symbols, use many different sizes of pen, brush, and other tools like the paint bucket and eraser to use to create whatever you want, while also being able to erase them in plenty of creative ways. This may be the bare essentials when it comes to an art program, but again, for a game meant to allow younger players to make whatever they want, it is a lot to work with, allowing for plenty of variety in what you draw and illustrate. Not to mention, you can also animate these drawings as well using the game’s animation tool known as Animation Land. It isn’t as advanced as other animation programs, but even still, you can make quite a lot with it, and it could be used as a gateway tool for those who want to learn how to animate. I mean, hey, this was the game that was used to create the first Homestar Runner episode, so if that doesn’t tell you how much it could help a creator out, I don’t know what will.

Out of all of the programs though, one of the most impressive and long-lasting features in the whole bunch is the music composer. It is what it sounds like, you make music with it, and you are given many different tools to do so, such as with plenty of sound effects you can use, as well as the many different levels you can place them in to alter the sound to your liking. Once again, it doesn’t offer as much as many other music programs, but once again, the many different songs you can make with this program is limitless, and people have managed to make many different impressive remixes just from this tool alone. Seriously, if you just go onto YouTube right now and type in the name of a famous song followed by the words “Mario Paint”, and 9 times out of 10, you will find a remix of it that was entirely made using this software. As for myself, I am not a musician of any kind, so I can’t use this tool to save my life, but for what it is worth, I do find the garbage I do slap together to be pleasing to the ears, so it works well enough for me.

But hey, if creating things isn’t what you are looking for, then that’s ok, because Mario Paint also offers a fully original game alongside everything else, and it is… a fly swatter minigame. Yeah. You play as a hand holding a fly swatter, and your task is to simply swat all of the flies that come on the screen, whether they be big and dangerous or small and feeble, eventually leading up to you needing to swat this HUGE-ASS disgusting fly so that it explodes into a bunch of fly guts. It isn’t anything too complex, but again, much like the rest of the game, the simplicity of this mode, coupled with the music, looks, and sound effects make this one of the most enjoyable and memorable aspects about the game as a whole, to the point where it has been brought back in Super Mario Maker, as well as referenced plenty of times in plenty of other Nintendo games. Not to mention, it is pretty satisfying to swat all of these flies down, letting them know that they AREN’T WELCOME HERE!

As great as Mario Paint is though, as one could expect, it isn’t the perfect creation tool, but that isn’t necessarily the game’s fault. As time has gone on, there have been many different other programs or games that have come out that are primarily meant to be art tools, offering plenty of other tools to use to create whatever you want, some of which Mario Paint just doesn’t have. Once again, the amount you get is impressive, but it won’t give you everything you need to create an artistic marvel, if you know what I mean. Also, as for me, while I do really love what we got here… I’m not really too into it. I have never really been into games where you “make things”, and while I can have a good amount of fun with them for a bit, they definitely aren’t the games I come back to often at all. I’d rather have a pre-built adventure given to me rather then one where I can make my own, and I probably will feel that way about games until the day I die. But again, for what it is worth, I did really enjoy my time with Mario Paint, and I am glad that I finally decided to give it a shot.

Overall, despite its limitations and how I personally couldn’t get too into it, Mario Paint is one of the best art creation games from the early 90’s, giving players plenty of tools to use to create whatever they want, and still managing to find plenty using it and fooling around on it to this day. I would definitely recommend it for those wanting to just mess around with some art tools or a music maker, or even for those who just wanna play the fly swatter minigame, because it will manage to give you exactly what you are looking for, and it may even have you coming back for more. And since I don’t know any other way to end off this review, here are a few horrible pictures that I made using this program just for you all………………. let’s just hope that Future Mega remembers to add those links in here, or else I am gonna look like a huge fucking fool.

EDIT: I remembered, you blue bitch. Have more faith in me for once
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027013055466446958/1181291686513606666/Mario_Paint_Mega.png?ex=6580869d&is=656e119d&hm=10c03fee8e588f48f5d079f54279e40bab91b6a9ca67f0d549e7484414cafd17&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027013055466446958/1181291686828195900/Mario_Paint_Rating.png?ex=6580869d&is=656e119d&hm=5a9bc98e5519a7b56dfa90013b7f60ab658a9bde3db98b8107e02762ccc0709d&
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1027013055466446958/1181291687071449238/Alex_Kidd_Died.png?ex=6580869d&is=656e119d&hm=29e16ca1d1c93d2c745eedf72493508b147d80aec875f1cfe635a922c533ef99&

Game #435

For anyone who has ever played any kind of mobile game before, you may or may not be familiar with the “runner” genre of games. These games were pretty simple, where you just simply ran forward endlessly, dodging plenty of obstacles and gaining plenty of items and powerups, while also trying to get the highest score you possibly could. While most of the time, these games are pretty brainless, and they usually have microtransactions up the wazoo, these can be a fun little distraction when done right, hence why they have become one of the most popular mobile game genres. With all that being said though, runner games didn’t start out on mobile phones, as they have been a thing for a very long time, with one of the earliest and more noteworthy examples of a runner video game being with Atomic Runner Chelnov, or just Atomic Runner.

I had known about this game for a little bit now, and I had always wanted to try it out for myself. Not only did it look decent enough to give a shot, but since it was one of the first runner games ever made, I wanted to see how exactly it played and if it held up all the way to this day. So, like I do with all of the games I review on this website, I decided to give it the ol’ college try, and after getting through most of it, I can come to the conclusion that… I cannot fucking stand it. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very unique and interesting game for the time, and one that can be fun in short bursts, but if you actually try to beat the game like I did, you will find the sinister nature of this game that dwells within as a result.

The story is along the lines of your typical comic book superhero plot, which works out well here, given how the game is initially presented to you, and how the story also presents itself (even though it scrolls by so fast you won’t be able to read it), the graphics are good, being good enough for the time that it came out for the arcades, but nothing about the game’s look is really eye-catching compared to other titles, the music is alright, having plenty of decent tracks to accompany you as you run through these stages, but it is nothing that will stick with you afterwards, the control is a little frustrating to get the hang of, especially when it comes to turning yourself from left to right while running, but you can get used to it eventually, and it is good for what it is, and the gameplay is pretty simple, yet innovative for the time, while also being incredibly frustrating too.

The game is a 2D runner game, where you take control of the Atomic Runner, go through seven different auto-scrolling levels, shoot down many of the enemies around you while constantly on the go, making sure to turn around and jumping when you need to, gather plenty of different weapons and powerups to increase your power and range of fire to help against the foes you will face, and take on plenty of bosses that are not part of any running sections, but will still test your running, jumping, shooting, and turning skills. For the most part, it is basically a typical arcade platformer, but of course with the main gimmick of having the player constantly moving at all times. Once again, for the time, this was a pretty neat idea for a game, but that doesn’t make the game any better in my eyes.

This may just be one of the most frustrating arcade games that I have ever played, and this is coming from someone who has played A LOT of hard as fuck arcade games. Sure, a lot of it is stuff that is typical for an arcade game, such as countless enemies being thrown at you, along with level design that can make going through some levels way harder than it needs to, but what adds onto all of this is the fact that you are constantly running. Because of this, you are given little to no time to plan before you are thrown into the fire, which may result in you either getting a lucky run and blazing through the enemies no problem, or, in the most likely of scenarios, you will die over and over and over and over again. It is nothing that is impossible, don’t get me wrong, but with the amount that this game throws at you at once, coupled with the fact that you die when taking only one hit, and you have a game that really shows no mercy on many occasions.

Now, that’s not to say that I completely hated Atomic Runner, because that is not true. I do like a lot of what this game has going for it, with the powerups being fun to experiment with, the feeling of blazing through enemies with a fully upgraded weapon being very satisfying, the movement of the runner being pretty responsive for most of the journey, and of course, the whole concept of the game being one that really is admirable for 1988. But unfortunately, when you take a typical case of arcade syndrome and combine it together with a game that is constantly auto-scrolling, I can’t say that that combination makes for a good time, and it certainly doesn’t make me wanna try to beat it anytime soon.

Overall, despite the fun power-ups you can use and, once again, the concept being inventive for the time, Atomic Runner was just too frustrating for me to really get behind, and it is definitely one of my least favorite games that I have played from Data East’s catalog. I would recommend it for those who are fans of arcade games, as well as those who are familiar with the runner genre, but for everyone else, there are definitely much better runners and arcade platformers that you could try out instead. But hey, if I had to give the game credit for one thing, I can’t think of any other titles that were mistaken for being a parody of the Chernobyl disaster. Slap that on your game box.

Game #432